1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transporting apparatus for plate form bodies to be used by building in a processing line or an inspection line of a glass panel for a plasma display, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is typical that a processing line or an inspection line of glass plates for plasma displays is divided into kinds of processes or inspection, or that a processing line or an inspection line cannot be constructed as a single straight line due to physical restriction. In such case, a relaying transporting passage portion is arranged for connection between the divided lines. When it becomes necessary to stop transportation of the plate form body in the line located downstream side of the relaying transporting passage portion, the plate form bodies fed from the upstream side line have to be temporarily stored without feeding into the downstream side line. Adapting to this, a storage apparatus for temporarily storing the plate form bodies is provided in the relaying transporting passage. In such case, the plate form bodies storage apparatus in the relaying transporting passage portion may be constructed to receive the plate form bodies fed from the upstream side line through a storage line branched from the relaying transporting passage portion, for temporary storage.
The construction, in which the storage apparatus is added, is disadvantageous for significant increase of facility investment and is even impractical in view point of installation space. Therefore, it is typical measure to build in the storage apparatus in the existing relaying transporting passage portion. In such kind of storage apparatus built in the relaying transporting passage portion, the plate form bodies on the relaying transporting passage portion are transported and vertically or laterally stacked. In the typically considered layout, the storage apparatus is arranged on upper side, lower side or lateral side of the relaying transporting passage portion, and transfer means for transferring the plate form bodies between the storage apparatus and the transporting passage is employed. However, such construction is also requires high facility investment for requiring dedicated transfer means and further requires large installation space for overall apparatus to cause significant difficulty in practical use by installing with the existing relaying transporting passage portion.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a transporting apparatus for plate form bodies which can solve the problems set forth above.
In order to accomplish the above-mentioned object, according to one aspect of the present invention, a transporting apparatus for plate form bodies, comprises:
a transporting passage portion arranged in a transporting line of plate form bodies and including transporting rotary bodies arranged in alignment along a transporting direction with a given interval;
temporarily storing means provided in the transporting passage portion at two positions of upstream side and downstream side for storing plate form bodies,
each temporarily storing means including vertically arranged a plurality of plate form body supporting members with a given interval permitting the plate form body to pass through,
each plate form body supporting member being formed with a plurality of string like members having lateral width to pass through a clearances between the transporting rotary bodies for movement in vertical direction and arranged in a transporting direction on the same plane for picking up the plate form body stopped at a predetermined position on the transporting passage portion and lifting the picked up plate form body for loading operation, and placing the plate form body in the storage portion onto the transporting passage portion for unloading operation.
With a carriage type transporting apparatus of the present invention constructed as set forth above, the storage means provided at two positions of upstream side and downstream side in the transporting direction are provided with plate form body supporting members in a plurality of stages in a vertical direction. Each plate form body supporting member is constructed with a plurality of string like members having widths to pass through clearance space between adjacent transporting rotary bodies, for vertical movement therethrough, and arranged on the same plane for simply being lifted up and down for loading and unloading the plate form body. Therefore, the storage means can be arranged within an installation region of the transporting passage portion. Also, necessary length of the transporting passage portion is merely two or three times that of the plate form body. Accordingly, the storage means can be installed in a relay transporting passage portion arranged between two transporting lines arranged in parallel relationship to facilitate installation. Furthermore, overall construction of the overall apparatus can be quite simple and in expensive.
Furthermore, when storing of the plate form bodies in the storage means is unnecessary, the plate form bodies can be transported irrespective of presence of two storage means. Upon occurrence of abnormality, in which the plate form bodies cannot be fed into the downstream side transporting line, and thus the plate form body fed from the upstream side line is to be temporarily stored, the stored plate form bodies can be fed out to the downstream side transporting line in the same order as fed from the upstream side transporting line in first-in first-out manner to avoid problem that otherwise might be caused by disordering of the plate form bodies due to presence of temporarily storing means. Accordingly, when the transporting apparatus according to the present invention is installed in the manufacturing line of the plate form bodies, the temporary storage of the plate form bodies will not affect for management of manufacturing lots.
In the preferred construction, the string like members lifted up and down between through one clearance between adjacent transporting rotary bodies are extended between a pair of left and right side frames, the pair of left and right side frames are integrated by an upper side connection frame located above the transporting passage portion and a lower side connection frame located below the transporting passage portion, and a vertically driving means for driving the lower side connection frame up and down is provided below the transporting passage portion.
In the alternative, the string like members lifted up and down between through one clearance between adjacent transporting rotary bodies are extended between a pair of left and right side frames, the pair of left and right side frames are integrated by an upper side connection frame located above the transporting passage portion and a lower side connection frame located below the transporting passage portion, and a vertically driving means for driving the upper side connection frame up and down is provided above the transporting passage portion.
By implementing the present invention with the construction set forth above, the storage means can be constructed using the space above and/or below the transporting passage.
Particular construction and operation of the present invention will become apparent from the disclosure of the preferred embodiment given hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings.